Fishing Bay Yacht Club's Junior Sailing Team

I watched the seconds tick down on the digital start watch in my hand— “3...2...1...” — and then an airhorn blasted in my ear.

- Mark Hayes

The sailors aboard the little eight-foot sailboats added to the noise and confusion, with some circling around to restart after crossing the line early, while other exasperated skippers tried to avoid banging into their neighbors. Despite the confusion, the majority of the boats got away cleanly, crossing the start line at the moment of the horn, and took off to the first inflatable mark, anchored 600 yards to windward. The boats were Optimist Dinghies, sailed by junior sailors between the ages of 8 and 15, and included my 12-year-old son. They had come from clubs across the Chesapeake Bay and North Carolina to compete in the Fishing Bay Yacht Club (FBYC) 2016 Commonwealth of Virginia Junior Championship Regatta, in Deltaville, Virginia.

The Commonwealth Regatta is an important early stop in the summer series for the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association (CBYRA) Junior High Points. Member clubs, scattered across the Chesapeake, take turns hosting regattas during the summer, and cumulative scores are counted towards the yearly championship. Awards are given at the end of the year for the highest-scoring individual juniors in each age group and type of boat. Last year a total of nearly 500 kids competed at 19 different clubs. The young sailors compete in Optimist Dinghies, a small, one-person boat sailed single handedly; Laser Radials, for larger and older kids; and 420s, which carry a crew of two. The junior program at Fishing Bay Yacht Club has quadrupled in size in the past 10 years. In 2016, FBYC team members won both the CBYRA Opti and Laser overall championships and, separately, FBYC team members were the top girls in both classes!